Don’t miss out on the good stuff!
In my last post, I answered a question that had been left via comment to a previous post. Then reader Carol commented on my comments adding even more value to the conversation (Lauren - it’s a good one, be sure to check it out).
Confused? Didn’t see any of those comments?
It’s been my experience that many times the comments left by blog readers can be even more valuable than the posts themselves. I subscribe to the theory that the group is smarter than the individual, so this is no surprise to me. However, I have also found that a large majority of people who read blogs find it difficult to stay up to date on the comments left, especially if they are only interested in a couple posts.
DCO has two ways to stay informed when comments are left on this blog.
Subscribe to all comments
Just like the new post feed you added to your RSS reader, you can add a feed for comments left on this site. At the very top of any page of this blog, towards the right, you will see links to my two feeds: “RSS FEED” and “COMMENTS”. Follow the same process you used to subscribe to our main feed for the comments feed, and whenever a comment is left on a post it will show up in your reader. This is the simplest way to stay up to date on all comments left, and requires a one-time setup only.
Subscribe to comments for a single post
For those of you who don’t want to see all comments left, but from time to time would like to follow the comments for a post that you find particularly interesting, there is another option. At the bottom of each post, underneath the comment box, you will find the following option:
Clicking the checkbox will tell the blog to send you an E-mail anytime someone posts a comment to this particular post. You are required to leave a comment for this to work, that’s where this service gets your E-mail address. This is not my design, this functionality is provided via a Wordpress plug-in and that’s just the way it works.
So to follow comments for a particular post, simply fill in the fields to leave a comment, click the “Notify me of…” checkbox at the bottom, then click the “Submit Comment” button.
Should you want to manage your notifications, links to all your options are included with each E-Mail you receive. Also, returning to this blog and scrolling down to the comments section of a post you are currently being notified about, should display a link allowing you to “Manage your subscriptions”. Click that link and you’ll get a page that will show you all the posts you signed up for, along with some other options.
Want more information?
If you’d like more information on this Wordpress plugin, or would like to add it to your Wordpress blog, it’s here in the Wordpress plugin directory.
Whatever method you choose to stay in touch, I invite you to actively comment on the posts here, and stay in touch with other comments left. I’m out of town for a few days, but when I get back, I’m going to start my foundational series of post examining Leadership and Entrepreneurship, and I look forward to your active participation.
Related posts
A recruiting “gift” for future leaders - any ideas?
In commenting on my last post, Lauren asks:
As for your comment on having difficulty finding things on Leadership, I am having the same problem. I am looking for a book we can use in out recruiting efforts as we go to colleges. Something that would set us apart, appeal to the students and be worthwhile. I have searched many websites looking for books on leadership, inspiration or just the hottest new business book. It has been an incredibly frustrating experience.
I hear you Lauren. Browsing the Leadership section at your local book store proves that the topic is enormously popular (or lucrative), but how to separate the great titles from the also-rans?
I have a number of ideas for you, let’s start with some books.
- The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader. This is the book I just finished reading. It is a very quick read. The book is small, compact and to the point. John covers Leadership qualities like passion, responsibility and character, among others. What I really like about this book is how it stays focused on not just telling stories, but helping you change. Each chapter talks about a single quality and includes “Reflecting on It” and “Bringing it Home” sections, each of which contain practical guidance and activities that can be used to practice and reinforce the quality.
- Crucibles of Leadership (sorry, no Google reviews yet) is next on my reading list. I just saw this book mentioned on a blog I follow and it sounds very interesting. This book talks about developing a Personal Learning Strategy, “a highly individual plan for leveraging hard-won insights about learning from adversity and using practice to improve performance”. The premise is that life hands us more than enough adversity to learn and grow, we just need a strategy to take advantage of those learning opportunities. I plan on buying this book soon.
- It’s a different spin than Leadership, but I believe a very important book that is off most folks radar is The 48 Laws of Power. Power is an often maligned aspect of Leadership, but is often necessary to getting things done. At the very least, it is usually a by-product of effective Leadership. In this book, the author presents 48 core concepts to getting and keeping power; concepts that will serve any leader well. What I love about this book is the style in which it is written. Each concept is illustrated by a short story about how some important historical figure either benefited or suffered at the hands of that particular quality. Almost zen-like images are used to reinforce the quality, and then a discussion of the qualities downside is presented. Not a quick as read as Maxwell’s 21 Qualities, but certainly just as important.
Now here’s my couple interesting alternatives to consider:
- Do some “market research”. I work with entrepreneurs daily who truly have great ideas, but neglect to figure out if anyone will pay money for them. Basic market research is usually fairly easy to do and is great help validating your concept. If your market is graduating college seniors looking for future leadership positions in your company, figure out a way to talk to a handful of them and see what they have to say. They may not recommend a particular book, but their comments might go a long way to helping define a book that would be meaningful to them.
- Leverage your personal network. You’ve started that with leaving a comment on this blog; don’t stop. Somewhere, someone you know has figured out this question. Send the question into your personal network and see what you get. If you don’t find the answer you are looking for, I’ve had great luck with LinkedIn’s Question & Answer feature. If you don’t have an existing LinkedIn network, then this may not work for you. If you do, then post the question there and you might be surprised at the quality of the responses you get.
Well, that’s it for my ideas. How about the rest of you? Any ideas for a unique gift Lauren’s company could give to college seniors they are recruiting? Just leave a comment below.
Related posts
So does this mean there are “Value Leaders”?
I’ve had a hard time finding good Leadership blogs. Either they are way to focused on selling their products, or they are simply mouthpieces for a Leadership “celeberity”. If you have a good Leadership or Excellence blog you could recommend, please leave me a comment.
One of the blogs I have found that I like is called The Practice of Leadership. The blog, written by George Ambler, is George’s way of thinking out loud on the topic and just having fun. What a great approach.
In citing a MIT Sloan Management Review article, George recently wrote an post entitled “Searching for Growth Leaders“. Growth Leaders, as defined by the MIT researchers, are:
… managers who can generate organic growth to “find new streams of revenue without always resorting to acquisitions.
I find two aspects of the article to be of particular interest; first the qualities listed, and second the mindset.
Qualities of Growth Leaders
The qualities of Growth Leaders listed in the article are:
- Rich in experience
- Changing the rules…
- …but managing risk
- Preferring people to data
- Pragmatic idealists
What I love about these qualities is the human/team orientation and the quite wonderful phrase “pragmatic idealist”. This is always what I have considered myself and it’s nice to actually see someone else talking this way; especially in the context of Leadership. As we develop our own sense of Leadership on this blog, we will have to remember these qualities and make sure they are taken into consideration.
George’s article presents detailed descriptions of all the qualities and I highly suggest you jump over to it and give it a read.
“The Virtuous Mindset”
What I like even more than the qualities listed, is this sense of growth leadership being tied to a virtuous cycle, whereas a fixed mindset is tied to a vicious cycle. While I’m not sure it’s quite that simple, I do believe that a virtuous cycle, one that embraces people and sees life as a journey, can be a solid foundation for growth.
What we see here is growth leadership tied to openness, understanding people, competency, and the willingness to take a risk. Much of this is common to all article written on entrepreneurship. What stands out for me is the almost “new age” aspect of broad life experiences and understanding people as a foundation for not only Leadership but Growth Leadership.
Again - a good, quick read that I highly recommend.
Related posts
Get “The World is Flat” on audio for free
Reading some other blogs over the weekend, I saw a special offer on Thomas Friedman’s site. It’s a free audiobook download of his book The World is Flat.
Thomas Friedman is the foreign affairs correspondent for The New York Times.
I have not read Thomas’ blog or this book, so I can’t speak to the book contents or his politics. Based on his position and his employer, I would guess he is an accomplished writer and the topic is certainly an interesting one for many leaders.
The Google book review lists the following official synopsis of The World is Flat:
When scholars write the history of the world twenty years from now, and they come to the chapter “Y2K to March 2004,” what will they say was the most crucial development? The attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11 and the Iraq war? Or the convergence of technology and events that allowed India, China, and so many other countries to become part of the global supply chain for services and manufacturing, creating an explosion of wealth in the middle classes of the world’s two biggest nations, giving them a huge new stake in the success of globalization? And with this “flattening” of the globe, which requires us to run faster in order to stay in place, has the world gotten too small and too fast for human beings and their political systems to adjust in a stable manner?
In this brilliant new book, the award-winning New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman demystifies the brave new world for readers, allowing them to make sense of the often bewildering global scene unfolding before their eyes. With his inimitable ability to translate complex foreign policy and economic issues, Friedman explains how the flattening of the world happened at the dawn of the twenty-first century; what it means to countries, companies, communities, and individuals; and how governments and societies can, and must, adapt. The World Is Flat is the timely and essential update on globalization, its successes and discontents, powerfully illuminated by one of our most respected journalists.
While not directly related to Leadership, the subject matter is certainly pertinent and an issue we should have an understanding on. As the synopsis states, the rise of India, China and others to disrupt our existing supply chains is a worldwide event of such a scale that it cannot be ignored. At the very least, we should understand the issues; for many of us, it is a manner of adapting to this new dynamic.
So if you are interested in a free audiobook version, follow the link above. I tried the registration process in an attempt to give you a head’s up should it be overly onerous or a disguised marketing scam, and have nothing to report as yet. The link takes you to a page with a brief overview of the offer. Click another link and you are asked to fill in your first and last name, and your E-Mail address. After that, you are advised that further instructions will be sent to your E-Mail.
UPDATE: Just read my E-Mails, and there is definitely a marketing play at work here. The first E-Mail I received “confirmed” my subscription to an E-Mail list:
Thanks for joining the Farrar, Straus and Giroux Marketing Department email list!
I thought I was just asking to receive a free audiobook! In all fairness, the E-Mail did include a confirmation link for the subscription and a link to change your mailing preferences, and an opt-out list. Still, I really do not like these “offers”. They really come off feeling like a bait and switch.
The second E-Mail contains a link that you can follow to download your free audiobook. Well, not exactly. You can download Part 1 of your free audiobook. They’ve broken up the download into three parts and the preview of Thomas’ upcoming book is download four. This give them three more opportunities to market to you, and of course you want the download so you’re not going to unsubscribe.
In all fairness, the Part 1 download is 132M, which is a fairly big download even in this age of broadband. So breaking up the download is convenient. But let’s be honest - they could have simply put all four links on one page and let me download them whenever I want.
If the book is a good as advertised, then I guess the value I am receiving is worth the hassle of the unwanted marketing, but I wonder if these companies give any thought to the perceptions they are creating.
Am I just a grumpy old man or does anyone else find this “free download offer” to be poorly executed?
Related posts
DCO Weekend Reader - 7/25/08
The web is a vast repository of opinions, commentary and occasionally, wisdom. Here’s a selection of the best articles I read over the past week.
If you would like to recommend an article, blog or book, please leave a comment with your suggestion. We’ll see how this goes, but Weekend Reader is intended to be a regular feature here at DCO. Depending on the quantity/quality of articles I find (and your suggestions), I’m guessing it will be either weekly or every other week.
Leadership
- The Enrepreneurial Mind talked about the two V’s of the good entrepreneur: Vocation and Virtue.
- Time magazine publishes Nelson Mandela’s 8 Leadership lessons, written from the point of view of the person that worked with Nelson on his autobiography. I hate sites that break up articles across multiple pages, but this is a good read. The last lesson is particularly interesting and one we don’t often consider when thinking about Leadership.
- Kevin Eikenberry writes on the hidden enemy to continuous improvement. I’ll spoil the surprise and tell you it’s Complacency, but do click through and read his thoughts.
- The Leading Blog with 5 quick lessons on Leadership in this age of transparency.
- Tom Peters re-affirms that he’s a “two percenter“. This is the first time I heard this term, but I like it.
- Tom Peters also recommends a new book. Full disclosure: I haven’t read this, but if Tom Peters gives it two thumbs up, I’m guessing it’s good.
Thought-Provokers
- Seth Godin with some good advice to consider before communicating an important message.
For Fun
- Businesspundit lists 10 essential items to bring life to your cube. Was it full of death before?
- The Introvert’s guide to networking over at The Startup Blog.
Books
- I just finished John Maxwell’s The 21 Indedpensible Qualities of Leadership (hey, Google has book reviews! When did that start?). Short, to the point and well written. I particularly like the style in which each quality was presented, along with actionable next steps to put it into practice. I’ll write a review on this one soon.
Related posts
What my GPS taught me about Character
Like many folks I have one of those GPS devices in my car. It’s actually pretty similar to the one pictured on the left. Since I have it mounted inside my window and plugged into the cigarette lighter, it automatically comes on when I start the car, and is always on when I’m driving. If you don’t have one of these devices and you are on the road a lot, I highly recommend them. It’s one of those things you think is an extravagance, but once you get one you will wonder how you got along without it.
The display as shown is actively routing you to a destination, giving you turn by turn instructions. If you are not using the device for directions, you can simply bring up a map mode where it will show you all the roads in your immediate vicinity. From map mode you can click into a speedometer mode which shows your current speed, direction and some historical statistics.
This is the mode I go into a lot. The car I drive has an adjustable steering wheel, which I usually have lowered down as far as it can go. I just like it that way. However, it makes the speedometer very hard to see, and it is usually a good idea to have a sense of how fast your are driving. So clicking into the speedometer mode of the GPS gives me an alternate speedometer right at eye level. It’s much more convenient.
Related posts
“About” page up
Any good blog should have a succinct About page to describe the what they blog is all about and what it is trying to accomplish; maybe even something to address the always valid “why should I care” question.
Having a few minutes over lunch, I put together mine. Short and, hopefully, to the point.
Let me know if you’d like to see anything else.
Related posts
Taking a risk
Today I take a risk and start this blog.
What am I risking? The same risk we all face when deciding whether to take that first step or not - Failure.
The real risk however, and ironically the real failure, is never taking that first step.
This blog will focus on “Leadership through Entrepreneurship”. Over the next couple months I will be delving into what I mean by that and why I think the entrepreneurial spirit is a good framework within which to examine leadership.
My intent is to outline the qualities I feel are the building blocks for a successful entrepreneur and use them as a framework for a discussion on leadership. For the purposes of this blog, I define leadership as “personal and professional excellence”, and is something each of us can aspire to and participate in. We are all the leaders of the most challenging business there is: our lives.
I do not purport to be a leadership expert, nor do I feel I have achieved excellence in my personal and professional lives. I do however aspire to such excellence and believe I can facilitate a meaningful conversation on the topic.
I have given much thought to a topic to develop online. When the idea of melding personal excellence, leadership, and the principles of entrepreneurship came to me, I immediately got that rush of passion that told me I had come upon something that I was willing to devote the time and energy to that will be required.
My initial passion has ignited my creative juices and I’ve already been thinking way too far ahead on where we could go with this topic. I say “we” because my wish is that a passionate community will spring up around this topic; one that regularly adds to the conversation.
This will be my first post for a while as I get the blog’s plumbing setup and give a little more thought to how to arrange content here. In the meantime, if you are someone interested in the conversations it sounds like we will be having here, please add my feed to your list.